Monland Restoration Council Info

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Sender: pon nya <honsawatoi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

August 8,1996

August 8 marks the eight anniversary of general strike that led to a
military takeover of the government of Burma.  On August 8, 1988
throngs of  Burmese first took to the streets in support of democracy.
After more than a month of peaceful demonstrations, a military coup on
September 18 put a stop to the democracy movement. Calling themselves
the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the military
Junta ordered the killing of thousands of civilians.  Thousands more
were arrested, tortured, raped, and detained without trial.  Many
others fled to malarial jungles along the border with Thailand.

During the following eight years human rights abuses have escalated,
according to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.  Amnesty
International and other advocates for human rights have been
especially critical of the forced labor and forced location of
thousands of Mons and other ethnic nationalities through  whose
ancestral lands oil  companies  Unocal  (US) and Total (French) are
building a natural gas pipeline.

On June 29, 1995, the ethnic Mon armed opposition, New Mon State Party
(NMSP) signed a cease-fire deal with the SLORC. Even though the
cease-fire agreement was signed between SLORC and MNSP,  tortures,
rapes and murders by SLORC9s soldiers still increase in Monland. We
believe this cease-fire agreement cannot protect Mon people from the
SLORC oppression.

Last April Mon refugees were forcibly repatriated into Burma soil  as
marking the repatriation against their own desires.  We also believe
that it is not safe for  repatriation of Mon refugees while human
rights abuses still increase in  Monland and  while new arrivals from
several local Mon villages have continously come and looked  for a
safe haven in Halockhani camp.    It   should repatriate Mon refugees
only after peace and democracy are restored in Burma.

Citing the increasing reports of forced labor, torture, rape, and
murder in Burma,  the Monland Restoration Council is marking  the
anniversary of the first demonstrations by calling on US government
and the international community to:

   1.  Impose a total economic sanction on Burma.

    2.  Protect  Mon refugees from "forced repatriation."

    3.  Urge Burma4s military rulers to immediately release all
political prisoners and to begin negotiations with representatives of
the NLD and ethnic nationalities.


Central Committee

Monland Restoration Council.



If you want to know more about Mon, contact:

Monland Restoration Council
c/o Pon Nya
Westbrook Dr. Apt. #308
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
U.S.A.

email: honsawatoi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tel: + 1  219-471-3961


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